Maoists will stick to stand on PR election system, says Prachanda

CPN-Maoist chairman Prachanda today reiterated that his party would stick to its stance of proportional representation system of election in the constituent assembly (CA) polls.
Prachanda made this statement after meeting representatives of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) when the latter submitted a memorandum to the party demanding proportional election system in the CA polls on the basis of ethnicity.
Prachanda said the Nepali Congress has been "supporting foreign and national powers to push the nation into war again."
The umbrella organisation of Nepali indigenous nationalities demanded that ethnicity, language and region should be the basis of federal states and the state should ensure establishment of republic and the end of the monarchy.
"Today, we submitted a memorandum to Maoist leaders as a part of our campaign to build pressure on the parties to fulfil the demands of indigenous nationalities of the
country," said Pasang Sherpa, president of the NEFIN, adding that the federation would
also submit similar memorandum to CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal tomorrow morning. "We will submit memos to all the major parties," he added.
Sherpa said the special session of the interim parliament scheduled for Monday should fix the date for the Constituent Assembly polls after fulfilling the demands of janajatis through consensus among the seven political parties.
Earlier, the NEFIN had dropped its stance of proportional election system during the talks with the government, claiming that the demand would create obstacles for the CA polls scheduled on November 22. However, the NEFIN later revived their movement after the CPN-Maoist stuck to proportional election system and indigenous nationalities-related organisations, including the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities' Students, opposed the pact signed between the government and Janajatis.
Senior Maoist leaders Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Hitman Shakya and Hisila Yami were also present during the meeting, while the members of the NEFIN secretariat and representatives and advisors of different indigenous organisations also participated in the meet.